Race Judicata 2011
The Society of Bar and Gavel's 12th Annual Race Judicata will be held this Sunday, October 2 at 9 a.m. Proceeds will benefit the Miami Children's Hospital. Register online at www.active.com until September 30 or in person at 7:30 a.m. on race day. For more information email umlawracejudicata2011@gmail.com.

Pilates Session II Registration
Registration for session II of Pilates will start on Monday, October 3 and run through Friday, October 7. New classes begin on Wednesday, October 12. Click here to view the session II Pilates schedule. Classes and private lessons can be purchased in the Wellness Enrichment Suite Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 8 p.m. For more information contact Melissa Jurado at 305-284-8513.

Massage Discount for UM Faculty and Staff UM faculty and staff are eligible to receive a 10% discount on a 50-minute massage at the Herbert Wellness Center. In addition, UM employees who are not members of the Center will receive a day-pass to enjoy free use of the facility on the day of their massage appointment. The licensed massage therapists on staff, two males and two females, are available weekdays for daytime and evening appointments. Relieve stress or just pamper yourself - make a massage appointment today! Call the Wellness Suite at 305-284-LIFE(5433).

Wellness Education Series The Herbert Wellness Center is proud to promote healthy living by offering a series of programs on various topics, ranging from fitness and nutrition to stress management. The wellness education series is open to everybody, regardless of membership status. Registration is required prior to participation in any of the programs. Visit the Wellness Enrichment Suite or call 305-284-LIFE(5433) to reserve your place. Click here for the full schedule. Here are some of our upcoming programs in the series:

Meditation Classes - The Jewels of HappinessMonday, October 3, 7:30 - 9 p.m. Namaste! Are classes, social life, family, and/or work stressing you out? Take a break and meditate! You will develop mental clarity and discipline that will help you focus and improve concentration (great skills when it comes to juggling a busy schedule!) Lunthita Duthely, a follower of the teachings of Sri Chinmoy, will guide and instruct participants through the meditation. Instruction is free and open to everybody. Please RSVP to let us know you are coming by calling 305-284-LIFE (5433).

Basic Life Support (BLS) for Healthcare Providers (HCP) Tuesday, October 4, 12:30 - 4:30 p.m., Classrooms. The BLS for HCP course covers core materials such as adult and pediatric CPR (including two-rescuer scenarios and use of the bag mask), foreign-body airway obstruction, and automated external defibrillation. This course is for healthcare providers such as EMS personnel, physician assistants, doctors, dentists, nurses, and respiratory therapists who must have a credential card documenting successful completion of a CPR course. Cost: student members - $45, non-student members - $55, non-members - $65.

Heartsaver CPR with AEDThursday, October 13, 9:30 - 11:30 a.m., Classrooms. The HS AED course teaches CPR, AED use, and relief of choking in adults, children, and infants, as well as the use of barrier devices for all ages. (Optional: Infant CPR with mask and choking). Cost: student members - $30, non-student members - $35, non-members - $40.

Parking InformationPlease note that the BankUnited North, VIP, and Serpentine Lots may be closed for the following events:

October 1-2: South Florida Orchid Society Orchid Show

October 14: "The President's Own" United States Marine Band

October 15: Warrior One Mixed Martial Arts

For more specific parking information, please visit the Parking bulletin board to the right of the Herbert Wellness Center exit gates.

Step 3: Hold this contraction for one second, then rotate your forearms only as you turn your palm to face down. Hold this contraction again for another second.

Step 4: Inhale as you begin to extend your forearms to the starting position. Once reaching the starting position, rotate your palms to face up to begin your next repetition.

Ask a Trainer Have a question you'd like answered by a personal trainer? We're here to help.

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Q:It it OK to workout when I'm injured?

A: As an avid-exerciser myself, there are two types of injuries that can derail your ability to stay on the workout wagon. These types of injuries are acute or chronic.

Acute injuries are injuries that happen due to a specific event such as spraining your ankle, walking on an uneven surface or tearing your ACL during a football game. Typically, these accidents are unavoidable even if safety measures are followed.

Chronic injuries (aka overuse injuries) are the result of a lingering issue. These injuries could be due to bad form during exercises, postural imbalances, or repetitive motions during daily activities. More often than not, you can’t remember a specific event that caused this injury but there were probably little signs along the way that went unnoticed. Some common examples of chronic injuries are shin splits or tendonitis.

Here’s a quick checklist to help you stay injury free:

If it’s really painful, don’t do it.

Be sure you know how to do an exercise correctly (proper form and proper breathing) before you do it.

As you get stronger and begin to take on more challenging exercises, do so in small increments.

Take time to warm-up either by doing stretches or cardio (5-10 minutes).

Be aware of what and who is around you. There may be scattered equipment or a person lifting weights carelessly beside you that may cause you injury.

Make sure you use correct technique (lifting speed and posture).

Change up your activities and/or take days off to give your body a chance to recover.

As always, if your injury doesn’t get better within a reasonable amount of time, contact your physician or specialist. The Herbert Wellness Center offers free injury screening on Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. with a certified athletic trainer in the Wellness Enrichment Suite.

Did You Know?Interested in science-based fitness facts? Our resident exercise physiologist and associate director of fitness, will share fitness and nutrition information that is fact, not fiction.

Researchers have long known that regular exercise increases the number of organelles called mitochondria in muscle cells. Since mitochondria are responsible for generating energy, this numerical boost is thought to underlie many of the positive physical effects of exercise, such as increased strength or endurance.
Exercise also has a number of positive mental effects, such as relieving depression and improving memory. However, the mechanism behind these mental effects has been unclear. In a new study in mice, researchers at the University of South Carolina have discovered that regular exercise also increases mitochondrial numbers in brain cells, a potential cause for exercise’s beneficial mental effects.
Their article is entitled “Exercise Training Increases Mitochondrial Biogenesis in the Brain.” It appears in the Articles in Press section of the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society.

Methodology:
The researchers assigned mice to either an exercise group, which ran on an inclined treadmill six days a week for an hour, or to a sedentary group, which was exposed to the same sounds and handling as the exercise group but remained in their cages during the exercise period. After eight weeks, researchers examined brain and muscle tissue from some of the mice in each group to test for signs of increases in mitochondria. Additionally, some of the mice from each group performed a “run to fatigue” test to assess their endurance after the eight-week period.

Results: Confirming previous studies, the results showed that mice in the exercise group had increased mitochondria in their muscle tissue compared to mice in the sedentary group. However, the researchers also found that the exercising mice also showed several positive markers of mitochondria increase in the brain, including a rise in the expression of genes for proxisome proliferator-activated receptor-coactivator 1-alpha, silent information regulator T1, and citrate synthase, all regulators for mitochondrial biogenesis; and mitochondrial DNA. These results correlate well with the animals’ increased fitness. Overall, mice in the exercise group increased their run to fatigue times from about 74 minutes to about 126 minutes. No change was seen in the sedentary mice.

Importance of the Findings:
These findings suggest that exercise training increases the number of mitochondria in the brain much like it increases mitochondria in muscles. The study authors note that this increase in brain mitochondria may play a role in boosting exercise endurance by making the brain more resistant to fatigue, which can affect physical performance. They also suggest that this boost in brain mitochondria could have clinical implications for mental disorders, making exercise a potential treatment for psychiatric disorders, genetic disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.
“These findings could lead to the enhancement of athletic performance through reduced mental and physical fatigue, as well as to the expanded use of exercise as a therapeutic option to attenuate the negative effects of aging, and the treatment and/or prevention of neurological diseases,” the authors say.

Has life just been too busy to read the Health and Fitness section of your newspaper? Let us provide you with a few highlights of what's made the news lately.

Mushrooms are a Boon to Taste Buds and Immune SystemProducers of myriad foods designate specific months to promote and celebrate their wares, and September belongs to mushrooms. Our favorite fungi have more going on in the nutrition department than you may realize.
With their meaty, umami-rich flavor, common button mushrooms, portabellos, and shiitakes as well as more exotic enokis, criminis, and trumpets are a welcome addition to many dishes.

Mushrooms are about 80 percent water by weight, but the remaining 20 percent is packed with nutrients. One medium portabello mushroom has more potassium than a banana, and a 1/2-cup serving of most mushrooms has 20 to 40 percent of the daily value of copper, a mineral with cardioprotective properties.
Mushrooms are the only plant food that contains vitamin D. Shiitakes are the highest, with one cup yielding about 12 percent of the recommended daily value.
Shiitakes also contain lentinan, a polysaccharide (large carbohydrate) that boosts the immune system. Popular button mushrooms, have phytochemcials that inhibit the activity of aromatase, and thus have a role in breast cancer prevention in postmenopausal women. Rounding out the phytochemical trio are triterpenes, steroid-like molecules that inhibit histamine release and have anti-inflammatory properties.

All this nutritional firepower comes in an easy-on-the-waistline form: One cup of mushrooms has only 15 calories.

Add mushrooms to a simple tomato sauce, lasagna or casserole to bring out that savory “fifth taste,” umami. A dish rich in umami needs less added salt, a goal for most Americans.
The ancient pharaohs believed mushrooms brought immortality and decreed only royals could eat them — a delicious reason to be glad we live in a democracy.